Jurors deadlocked in trial of Staten Island widow

Advance file photo/Michael OatesJanet Redmond-Mercereau talks with a news photographer outside her Oakwood home prior to her arrest.

Jurors deciding the fate of a Staten Island woman accused of slaying her husband informed the judge this evening they are deadlocked in their deliberations.

In a note to Justice Robert J. Collini shortly before 6 p.m., jurors wrote, "The jury is locked at the following decision."

But the judge, with the consent of prosecutors Yolanda Rudich and Adam Silberlight, and Janet Redmond-Mercereau's attorneys Mario Gallucci and Joseph Benfante, ordered the jury back into deliberations by way of a formal Allen charge.

"I'm not asking you to go back and start your deliberations again," Collini said. "I'm telling you to go back and start your deliberations again." Jurors resumed working toward a verdict into the night.